The Bellevue University women's distance track team had their best showing at a conference meet in the short life of the program at the NSAA Indoor Track Championship on Sunday held at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex in Brookings, S.D. The day was highlighted by Madison Nelson and the Bruin's first conference title in the final event of the day for the Bruins, the 3,000-meter run. Nelson also brought home an all-Conference award in the 5,000-meter race and Lorelei Hayden added the honor in the mile run.
The day's events began with the women's 5,000 meters and Madison Nelson was content to sit in a group running for second as defending champ Jacia Christensen of Dakota State opened up a huge gap and was never headed. Nelson pulled away from the pack to coast to the runner-up spot, finishing just seven seconds behind Christensen in 19:02.95.That time was a new Bruin school record eclipsing Lorena Ramirez' mark of 19:19.27.
Next on the track was Sarah Felten in the 600 meters and she scored three points for the Bruins with her fifth-place finish in 1:48.23, just off her school record. Team points were awarded to the top eight finishers (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1). Following Felten on the track was the mile run, contested by four Bruin women and two men. For the women, Lorelei Hayden stormed back with a furious final lap to get the final All-Conference spot (top three) in a school record 5:36.20. Olivia Russo and Caroline Feig also got into the scoring column finishing in seventh and eighth respectively. Russo ran a seven-second personal best running 5:49.85 while Feig knocked three seconds from her best in 5:50.22. Rounding out the Bruin milers was Ali Hobbs, eleventh in 6:18.92.
The men's lone entries on the day were Edrei Murillo and Aaron Newton in the men's mile and they both recorded top eight finishes with Murillo sixth in 4:40.55 and Newton coming home in 4:50.52 for eighth. They would be the only Bruin team points on the day.
The women were not done getting into the scoring column as two more Bruins placed in the 800 meters. Following her hard finish in the mile, Lorelei Hayden finished in the fourth position running 2:34.00 and another Bruin school mark. Caroline Feig, winning the slow heat, ran her debut 800 in 2:36.88 which placed her seventh overall. Sarah Felten completed the 800 meter contestants with her tenth-place finish in 2:44.12.
The day's final event saw Madison Nelson return to the track in the 3000 meters for another matchup with DSU's Christensen. This time Nelson made a move early in the race and opened up what would be a sixteen-second gap over Christensen to capture BU's first ever indoor track title. Her time of 10:52.34 was again a Bruin school record as well as an NSAA meet record, besting the previous mark of 10:55.91 by Dickinson's Amanda Wolff in 2017. Olivia Russo came back from her mile personal best to record one in the 3000, finishing in 11:54.99 for 10th place, a seventeen-second improvement.
When the team points were totaled, the Bruin women had accumulated 37 points, good for 5th place and defeating complete teams from Waldorf and Iowa Wesleyan. The Dickinson State women scored 216.5 points to capture the women's NSAA crown. For the men, the Bruins scored in just the mile to total four points and finish in seventh place. Dakota State won the men's title with 253 points. Olivia Russo and Aaron Newton were recognized as the indoor track Champions of Character for the Bruins.
Head Coach Craig Christians: "I was really proud of our band of distance runners today. Seven of our eight runners scored points. We know we're not going to contend for a team title with just the distance events but I'd like to think that we played the spoiler role a bit for those that were contending. The three All-Conference awards was a real highlight capped by Madison's title. I liked the competitiveness and winning attitude we showed. We approach the indoor season as an opportunity to get better and everyone made huge strides this season. Coach Barbosa has been a great addition and the athletes are responding to his workouts. We'll take a little break from racing and I know we can't wait to get outdoors to race."
The Bruins will resume competition when their outdoor meet schedule begins on March 26 with the Midland Warrior Invitational in Fremont.
